Botanical classification/cultivar designation: Phalaenopsis Orchid cultivar Exotic Ruby.
The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of Phalaenopsis Orchid, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name, Exotic Ruby.
The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Bremen, Germany. The objective of the breeding program is to create new uniform pot-type Phalaenopsis Orchid cultivars having attractive flower coloration.
The new cultivar was discovered by the Inventor from within the progeny of a cross-pollination of two unidentified proprietary selections of Phalaenopsis Orchids, not patented, on Nov. 28, 1997, in a controlled environment in Bremen, Germany.
Asexual propagation by tissue culture in a laboratory in Bremen, Germany has been used to increase the number of plants for evaluation and has demonstrated that the unique combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for the new Phalaenopsis Orchid are firmly fixed and are retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be basic characteristics of new cultivar which in combination distinguish this Phalaenopsis Orchid as a new and distinct cultivar:
1. Red purple-colored flowers with darker red purple-colored labellum.
2. Freely flowering habit.
3. Upright, freely branching and sturdy flowering stems.
4. Excellent postproduction longevity.
Plants of the new cultivar differ primarily from plants of the parent cultivars in flower color.
Plants of the new Phalaenopsis Orchid can be compared to plants of the cultivar Nopsya, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 10,682. In side-side comparisons conducted in Bremen, Germany, plants of the new Phalaenopsis Orchid differed from plants of the cultivar Nopsya in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Phalaenopsis Orchid were smaller than plants of the cultivar Nopsya.
2. Plants of the new Phalaenopsis Orchid had shorter yet broader leaves than plants of the cultivar Nopsya.
3. Plants of the new Phalaenopsis Orchid were more freely flowering than plants of the cultivar Nopsya.
4. Plants of the new Phalaenopsis Orchid had larger inflorescences with more flowers per inflorescence than plants of the cultivar Nopsya.
5. Plants of the new Phalaenopsis Orchid had slightly smaller flowers than plants of the cultivar Nopsya.
6. Plants of the new Phalaenopsis Orchid and the cultivar Nopsya differed in flower color.